Practical Intuition: How to Harness the Power of Your Instinct and Make It Work for You

What Are You All About? It has been said that each individual's life boils down to a single question. Your life is the living of that question, the search for its answer and personal significance. Arriving at that ultimate question involves asking and answering numerous preliminary questions. Slowly, you begin to realize all the questions' interrelatedness, until at last you distill them down to one. You do this not by gaining information from empirical sources but by questioning yourself and unearthing knowledge you didn't know you possessed. This answering of a question with a question that reveals a still greater truth is a fundamental part of many religious traditions, including Hebraic, Jesuitical, and Zen. It's in reaching the profound, seminal questions that the meaning is discovered and the questioning taken to the next level of understanding. The questions lead us to places unfamiliar and then make these places known to us. An insightful psychotherapist once said to me, "You want answers to questions that only you could think to ask." At the time I thought he was validating my intellectual superiority. But I've come to realize that certain questions are so intricately tied to our individuality that the answers can come only from within ourselves. Often this is the last place we look. The function of intuition is to lead us to these answers. The function of the mind and the heart is to formulate the questions. This book will help you answer your questions by asking them back at you. Indeed, only you can answer the ultimate questions of your life. It always amazes me that we expect disciplines like philosophy and religion and intuition to answer questions such as What is the meaning of life? Yet we don't think that the individual "I" who generates these philosophies can answer something simple like Will the price of gold rise in February? or Where the heck did I leave my car keys? or, more seriously, How can I make my relationship more successful? It's the little questions that make up life. Getting In Touch With Your Priorities The following is a simple questionnaire that will help you pinpoint the information you need to best use the next chapter. This is also your first exercise in opening the door to intuition. Exercise 1 Getting In Touch With Yourself Part I Record your first response to each of the following questions, even if it doesn't seem to make sense. Be honest. Don't try to be clever or to respond in a way you think will impress me or others. Be brief; sometimes a word will suffice. You will have the opportunity to give more reflective answers shortly. Although this exercise calls for short responses, you may want to have a friend read off the questions and transcribe your answers. If not, use your tape recorder. Remember, I want your immediate responses. OK? Here goes: In this moment, what do you want? In this moment, what do you need? In this moment, what is your greatest fear? In this moment, what is your dearest wish? In this moment, what do you need to be happy? In this moment, what is your ambition? In this moment, what is your greatest talent? In this moment, what is your most formidable obstacle? In this moment, how are you your own worst enemy? In this moment, with what part of your life are you most satisfied? In this moment, what is missing in your life? In this moment, in which area of your life would youDay, Laura is the author of 'Practical Intuition: How to Harness the Power of Your Instinct and Make It Work for You', published 1996 under ISBN 9780517268896 and ISBN 0517268892.